Graciliceratops

Phylogeny: Dinosauria > Ornithischia > Genasauria > Neornithischia > Cerapoda > Marginocephalia > Ceratopsia > Neoceratopsia

Overview: Fossils of this small ceratopsian were first discovered in the early 1970’s by a joint team of Polish and Mongolian paleontologists, in the southeast of Mongolia. Polish researchers went on to describe the fossils a few years later, referring them to the genus Microceratus (then known as Microceratops, but later renamed as it was already in use for a wasp genus). However, some later studies would find the holotype remains of Microceratus to lack enough diagnostic traits, finding it to be a dubious taxon. So, in 2000, the renowned American paleontologist Paul C. Sereno officially re-described Graciliceratops as its own, separate genus. Its name, meaning “slender horned face”, is a reference to the animal’s overall light build, even in comparison to other early ceratopsians. The majority of said animals were still more than ten million years away from becoming truly huge.

Known fossil material from Graciliceratops includes portions of the skull, lower jaw, limb bones, the spinal vertebrae, and a piece of the pelvis. The holotype appears to have been quite small, at about sixty centimeters (two feet) in length. Studies suggest this was most likely a juvenile. Adults may’ve been between one and two meters long, or possibly slightly larger. Restorations of Graciliceratops, in most cases, depict it as a biped. This was probably the case based on its limb morphology, but it was a bit more derived than some other bipedal ceratopsians. Studies classify it confidently within the Neoceratopsia and possibly even the Coronosauria, though it was almost certainly more basal than Protoceratops and its kin. Graciliceratops fossils come from the Bayan Shireh Formation, so it likely coexisted with other notable dinosaurs like Segnosaurus, Garudimimus, and Achillobator.